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unchangeable , because it is based on the fixed elements of our common nature . The highest , as we think , and certainly the most difficult description of tragedy is that , in which the result is brought about with the least possible assistance
from outward circumstance , and by the excitement of the noble passions rather than the base . In proportion as tragedy depends on situation , it approaches melo-drama ; and in proportion as it deals with the base passions , it loses its eternal character , because it is
conceivable that they may be obliterated , or at all events greatly neutralized in the progress of reason and humanity . Cosmo de Medici is an instance of that which we have
characterised as belonging to the highest order of tragedy . The action proceeds entirely from the workings of human passion . There are no turns of fate , no extraordinary accidents , no supernatural interferences ; but the leading events flow from the combinations
and relations of the different minds and passions developed before us . Yet while this strictly metaphysical character belongs to the conception , the execution is full of life . It is
highly and purely dramatic , the passion being followed to its tragic result of " terror and desolation . " The fifth act is surpassingly grand , and worthy to be classed with the noblest creations of the noblest age of the drama . We have remarked the
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grandeur of the conception ;; but the construction is by 1103 means equal to it . The distribution of the action ini the first and second acts isg
very faulty , the Duke being ; kept in a state of total quiescence—in fact , he seems to > do nothing but read , and write ,, and talk , and sit in a chair *
thinking , until the fourth scene of act 3 . All this dignified calmness may be very natural to the character till excited by violent circumstances : but surely nothing , so far as he is concerned , could be more
illarranged and undramatic . The light comedy scenes , though full of life and variety , have , with perhaps one or two rare exceptions , nothing whatever to do with the main
action , and we are provoked with ourselves for laughing at such wanton excrescences . The wit is also , at times , a most extraordinary mixture of erudite and pedantic allusions , anachronisms , and ludicrous
extravagance . These faults , as they lie on the surface , will hide from many , who never look deeper , the grandeur of the main action , which is in itself perfect as a whole , and worthy
of every advantage which art and high finish could have added towards its true appreciation . The style is vigorous , original , and varied ; and the dialogue easy and natural .
'I he plot is historical , and the scene laid at Florence , in the reign of Cosmo , the first Grand Duke of Tuscany , in whose family the sudden deaths
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Cosmo de' Medici . 193 §
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No . 222—III . P
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 193, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/49/
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